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The Amazon Dash line of physical, Internet-connected buttons, which allowed customers to purchase (usually for around $5 a pop) one-tap restocking of home staples like snacks, toiletries, and laundry supplies, will stop functioning altogether on August 31. This follows Amazon's decision to stop selling the buttons in February of this year, despite being so bullish about the concept that it was selling over 100 brands' worth of Dash buttons by 2016.

In a statement to Cnet, Amazon justified its plans by saying that consumer use of the devices "has significantly slowed" since the retailer stopped offering them as a buyable option. In addition, Amazon points to ways that consumers can exert even less energy to buy stuff, particularly via Internet-connected appliances that leverage Amazon's Dash Replenishment API to reup on supplies when a device suspects something is running low. (We're kind of sad that Amazon didn't just sell consumers a robot that would automatically trot up to your existing Dash buttons and tap them on your behalf, but, alas.) Meanwhile, if you really crave tapping a single, colorful button to get more boxes of macaroni and cheese, Amazon still offers a digital facsimile in the form of a virtual Dash Buttons interface from either Amazon's home page or shopping app.

What, then, should consumers do with any physical buttons they have stuck next to their appliances or kitchen counters, or collecting dust in drawers? Why, hack them!

Existing Dash buttons come packed with everything you need to send a basic command via a Wi-Fi protocol (though little else). As enterprising users discovered shortly after the line's 2015 launch, that command can be customized. The catch is that the whole process begins with Amazon's general shopping app, available for iOS and Android devices, to set the Dash button up for its intended use as a shopping device—and there's no guarantee that Amazon's app will continue supporting this first step beyond the end of August 2019.

Further Reading

As this 2015 Medium guide explains, once you've finished that first step of the setup process, and thus fed your local router information to the button, you can stop and delete the Amazon app and get to work. From that point, the rest of the guide walks you through the steps necessary to turn your ancient Dash button into a general-use IFTTT (If This Then That) device, which revolves in part around discovering the button's MAC address. (The guide at one point points users to a dead URL for IFTTT's Maker Webhooks service, which you can now find here, but it's otherwise current enough.)

What will you use leftover Dash buttons for? Beats us. But anything has to be better than pressing the thing and not getting a massive carton of Doritos as expected.

138 Reader Comments

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

Not exactly a big loss here.

I bought one, I got an Amazon credit for the same price as the button when I bought it ... it's not like I desperately need the button.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

The worst thing is all those products require routing through the company's infrastructure, so if they pull the infrastructure, you're left with an expensive brick. God forbid you'd be able to keep and continue using a product you already paid for without the manufacturer continuing to get a cut.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

Not exactly a big loss here.

I bought one, I got an Amazon credit for the same price as the button when I bought it ... it's not like I desperately need the button.

I just with they had come in more formats -- like a sensor in the second to last Kleenex box that sends the message to buy more when the box is opened. The problem is that they needed to be set up and then your workflow needed to be modified to work with them.

A system that used cheap beacons managed by a local hub (Alexa?) would make a lot more sense.

I didn't buy a single dash button with any intent to use it as a dash button.

I have multiple dash buttons.

No, these statements do not contradict each other.

(honestly I imagine this is a major reason it's getting shut down... did ANYONE actually buy these to use as intended [more than once, when that was in the promotion requirements]? Some I got for the promotion(s) with them that made them better than free... some of the initial ones I got to hack because they were cheap wifi buttons that were decently put together)

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

The worst thing is all those products require routing through the company's infrastructure, so if they pull the infrastructure, you're left with an expensive brick. God forbid you'd be able to keep and continue using a product you already paid for without the manufacturer continuing to get a cut.

Exactly. It baffles my mind how anyone could spend a single dollar on a Nest product knowing what they did to their Revolv customers. "Hey I know you spent a thousand dollars on a smart hub and home automation equipment but we're changing brand names so you can get fucked. Enjoy your paper weights." I have friends with computerized home automation from the 1980s. It still works.

This always seemed to me like a solution to a problem that didn't exist. If you run out of something, how is pressing a button linked to Amazon going to help? It won't just materialize within seconds; you still had to wait two days before it arrives and by then you could have gone to the store and bought the stupid thing.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

Not exactly a big loss here.

I bought one, I got an Amazon credit for the same price as the button when I bought it ... it's not like I desperately need the button.

I just with they had come in more formats -- like a sensor in the second to last Kleenex box that sends the message to buy more when the box is opened. The problem is that they needed to be set up and then your workflow needed to be modified to work with them.

A system that used cheap beacons managed by a local hub (Alexa?) would make a lot more sense.

It wasn't the technology behind it that failed. It was the concept and use of the product.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

The worst thing is all those products require routing through the company's infrastructure, so if they pull the infrastructure, you're left with an expensive brick. God forbid you'd be able to keep and continue using a product you already paid for without the manufacturer continuing to get a cut.

Exactly. It baffles my mind how anyone could spend a single dollar on a Nest product knowing what they did to their Revolv customers. "Hey I know you spent a thousand dollars on a smart hub and home automation equipment but we're changing brand names so you can get fucked. Enjoy your paper weights." I have friends with computerized home automation from the 1980s. It still works.

That's why if it's not Zigbee or Zwave and available across multiple vendors without needing a vendor server i won't touch it.

Like I used to recommend SmartThings hubs until Samsung got a hold of them and took out the local controllers and went all cloud processing.

This always seemed to me like a solution to a problem that didn't exist. If you run out of something, how is pressing a button linked to Amazon going to help? It won't just materialize within seconds; you still had to wait two days before it arrives and by then you could have gone to the store and bought the stupid thing.

Maybe Amazon should have worked on teleportation technology instead.

I never bought them, but I can see where they'd be useful. You're in the laundry room, realize you're running low on detergent, and push the button that's right there. As opposed to completely forgetting to order any half an hour later when you're on your laptop or phone.

This always seemed to me like a solution to a problem that didn't exist. If you run out of something, how is pressing a button linked to Amazon going to help? It won't just materialize within seconds; you still had to wait two days before it arrives and by then you could have gone to the store and bought the stupid thing.

Maybe Amazon should have worked on teleportation technology instead.

The idea was that you didn't even need to bring up Amazon's website/app, you could place an order with a single button press. Of course, it just meant that it bought whatever was available from the first seller with no price comparisons, but if you're willing to outsource your non-perishables purchasing to a big shiny button that probably wasn't a problem in the first place.

I remember the advertising blitz on Amazon's front page back when they first came out, and they never really seemed like something anyone would really want. But I guess I was wrong.

They're wonderful, single function devices that do what they do well. Why can't Amazon keep supporting them?

I have one next to my daughter's baby wipes. When we open the last pack, we press the button, and more show up in a day or two. No risk of getting distracted by my phone, forgetting to order and running out, etc.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

I thought for sure that was going to segue into unnecessary plastic clogging our landfills. THAT'S the big problem. We can all adapt to changes in our workflow I don't mind changing my habits. But I do mind local rivers running with plastic waste.

The fuck did the dash button do, but save us from opening a web browser and making a few mouse clicks?

This always seemed to me like a solution to a problem that didn't exist. If you run out of something, how is pressing a button linked to Amazon going to help? It won't just materialize within seconds; you still had to wait two days before it arrives and by then you could have gone to the store and bought the stupid thing.

Maybe Amazon should have worked on teleportation technology instead.

It's *supposed* to solve the problem of "I'm in the closet pulling out a box of kleenex because F U POLLEN AND HAY AND MY IMMUNE SYSTEM TURNING ON ME AS A RESULT and noticed there's only one more box left, so I can press a button that's RIGHT THERE to re-order, instead of forgetting to add it to my shopping list that's in the kitchen".

There are better, more generalized ways to solve that problem for the people who it's a problem for.

I recognize what they were aiming for from a number of angles, but I just think it was misguided, poorly conceived as an actual product, and poorly executed to boot (either there was enough value here to send these out for free as loss leaders to try to keep the brand lockin these aim for--no, timed promotions don't count--or they weren't worth doing in the first place).

I think they could have worked if they were integrated into Subscribe and Save, so that you could have something on S&S and still use a button to reorder sooner without losing your S&S discount (and without it still shipping out in your next S&S shipment). But then again, you could just use your smartphone instead.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

The worst thing is all those products require routing through the company's infrastructure, so if they pull the infrastructure, you're left with an expensive brick. God forbid you'd be able to keep and continue using a product you already paid for without the manufacturer continuing to get a cut.

Exactly. It baffles my mind how anyone could spend a single dollar on a Nest product knowing what they did to their Revolv customers. "Hey I know you spent a thousand dollars on a smart hub and home automation equipment but we're changing brand names so you can get fucked. Enjoy your paper weights." I have friends with computerized home automation from the 1980s. It still works.

That's why if it's not Zigbee or Zwave and available across multiple vendors without needing a vendor server i won't touch it.

Like I used to recommend SmartThings hubs until Samsung got a hold of them and took out the local controllers and went all cloud processing.

Yes. That and the comparative security angle of Zigbee/Zwave vs rando WIFI shit (short of segmenting it off, but you're still dealing with the issue of it relying on someone else's remote server/service generally even if you do keep it from being able to access the rest of your network).

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

Not exactly a big loss here.

I bought one, I got an Amazon credit for the same price as the button when I bought it ... it's not like I desperately need the button.

Your wallet may have recuperated the cost but I think you missed the point.

Why are people driven to impulse buy all this junk? What was Amazon thinking by offering it up for sale? Why do we reward the sale of short term products and planned obsolescence? Why are these problems of company culture only relevant to the masses when it impacts their wallets?

Someone still has to deal with that plastic button which will take millennia to decompose. But forget about that, right? You still got your money's worth, right?

Amazon points to ways that consumers can exert even less energy to buy stuff, particularly via Internet-connected appliances that leverage Amazon's Dash Replenishment API to reup on supplies when a device suspects something is running low.

So they're shutting down the server listening for buttons but not the API for automated ordering?

Amazon points to ways that consumers can exert even less energy to buy stuff, particularly via Internet-connected appliances that leverage Amazon's Dash Replenishment API to reup on supplies when a device suspects something is running low.

So they're shutting down the server listening for buttons but not the API for automated ordering?

I'm a little disappointed there's not an in-depth article from Lee talking about how to configure ubiquiti gear in a homelab to automatically detect appropriate MAC addresses and create an Amazon Dash VLAN that uses an alternative DNS server to reroute the button presses to some internal server running a webhooks api inside a LXC/LXD container.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

Not exactly a big loss here.

I bought one, I got an Amazon credit for the same price as the button when I bought it ... it's not like I desperately need the button.

Your wallet may have recuperated the cost but I think you missed the point.

Why are people driven to impulse buy all this junk? What was Amazon thinking by offering it up for sale? Why do we reward the sale of short term products and planned obsolescence? Why are these problems of company culture only relevant to the masses when it impacts their wallets?

Someone still has to deal with that plastic button which will take millennia to decompose. But forget about that, right? You still got your money's worth, right?

Come down off that hugggggeeee pedestal Captain Planet and repeat that, I can't hear you from all the way down here.

Don't attack a single consumer because they tried a product that goes against your ideals, it's a dick move and nobody likes that guy

Amazon points to ways that consumers can exert even less energy to buy stuff, particularly via Internet-connected appliances that leverage Amazon's Dash Replenishment API to reup on supplies when a device suspects something is running low.

So they're shutting down the server listening for buttons but not the API for automated ordering?

Yea. That's the part that confuses me.

I can understand that they might stop producing and selling the buttons; but how expensive can it be to not abandon support for existing buttons; even if just to maintain the "if you have something we will support you" for users .

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

The Dash buttons are just so incredibly wasteful. You'd buy multiple buttons for different brands and they weren't reusable or customizable. Given that these always had a limited lifespan by design, their manufacture is literally production -> landfill with just a little "consumer" step between that makes it seem "worthwhile."

Do you know the answer to the question, "make it easier for customers to buy frequently used stuff?" It's "improve the app." It is not "let's start estimating the amount of polypropylene we need to source" or some shit.

And THEN it occurred to me. Amazon is SO vertically silo'd that they tend to reinvent things across separate teams because they are unable to effectively work together. It's obvious in AWS and how they keep launching new services built on old ones to address the old services' weaknesses, rather than fixing them.

So, within Amazon, the answer to "improve the app" may have literally been "build a physical device" because proper collaboration just wasn't even possible. It's obviously a money making grab, too, but I honestly wonder if that separation didn't help to drive things. If you could have made the app make as many orders as the Dash buttons, that would be the preferable option, as there is no physical overhead.

It's just proof of uncreative thinking, honestly. Virtual buttons in apps are based on physical buttons. So they made a physical button to simulate a virtual button that simulates a physical button. Good jorb you guys.

This always seemed to me like a solution to a problem that didn't exist. If you run out of something, how is pressing a button linked to Amazon going to help? It won't just materialize within seconds; you still had to wait two days before it arrives and by then you could have gone to the store and bought the stupid thing.

Maybe Amazon should have worked on teleportation technology instead.

I never bought them, but I can see where they'd be useful. You're in the laundry room, realize you're running low on detergent, and push the button that's right there. As opposed to completely forgetting to order any half an hour later when you're on your laptop or phone.

That is where we used ours same with things like trashbags and the like. It won't be the end of the world but they were nice. Running low, push button, and a couple days the package is there. Usually by then I had forgotten all about it and and am like "oh yeah we were running low on that".

I think Alexa killed Dash. Alexa is huge and growing and does more than just order stuff. It is amazon's way into the household in a way that a single function device like Dash isn't.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

Not exactly a big loss here.

I bought one, I got an Amazon credit for the same price as the button when I bought it ... it's not like I desperately need the button.

Your wallet may have recuperated the cost but I think you missed the point.

Why are people driven to impulse buy all this junk? What was Amazon thinking by offering it up for sale? Why do we reward the sale of short term products and planned obsolescence? Why are these problems of company culture only relevant to the masses when it impacts their wallets?

Someone still has to deal with that plastic button which will take millennia to decompose. But forget about that, right? You still got your money's worth, right?

I think you're asking different questions than the person I responded to, so of course it doesn't answer any of your questions.

As for how impulse buys work and and what to do with it, I think that is kinda a big topic.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

I thought for sure that was going to segue into unnecessary plastic clogging our landfills. THAT'S the big problem. We can all adapt to changes in our workflow I don't mind changing my habits. But I do mind local rivers running with plastic waste.

You can hack em. They make pretty cool general purpose wifi buttons once rerouted. If you know anyone who has them and like to hack stuff ask them to give them to you instead of throwing them away.

I suspect a potential US class action lawsuit is the true reason for shutting them down. Amazon was sued in Germany because the buttons don't provide pricing information before you push and the price may have changed since your previous push.

I'm a little disappointed there's not an in-depth article from Lee talking about how to configure ubiquiti gear in a homelab to automatically detect appropriate MAC addresses and create an Amazon Dash VLAN that uses an alternative DNS server to reroute the button presses to some internal server running a webhooks api inside a LXC/LXD container.

These will be missed in my household. I have them for all sorts of stuff: Paper towels, toilet paper, trash bags, cat food, dish detergent, laundry detergent, three sizes of batteries, and more, which are all located where those are stored. It’s so convenient to realize I’m running low on any one of those things and, in one second without taking out my phone or risking distraction, just solve the problem and move on with whatever I was doing.

This always seemed to me like a solution to a problem that didn't exist. If you run out of something, how is pressing a button linked to Amazon going to help? It won't just materialize within seconds; you still had to wait two days before it arrives and by then you could have gone to the store and bought the stupid thing.

Maybe Amazon should have worked on teleportation technology instead.

I never bought them, but I can see where they'd be useful. You're in the laundry room, realize you're running low on detergent, and push the button that's right there. As opposed to completely forgetting to order any half an hour later when you're on your laptop or phone.

Problem is you had to remember to get the button in the first place. I think this was a strategic mistake on amazons part. They should have gone to the big CPG companies that spend billions on marketing and offered them to co-package a button for customers of their goods free of charge. I bet these companies would have killed for the type of customer loyalty a dedicated button would have brought their brands.

I didn't buy a single dash button with any intent to use it as a dash button.

I have multiple dash buttons.

No, these statements do not contradict each other.

(honestly I imagine this is a major reason it's getting shut down... did ANYONE actually buy these to use as intended [more than once, when that was in the promotion requirements]? Some I got for the promotion(s) with them that made them better than free... some of the initial ones I got to hack because they were cheap wifi buttons that were decently put together)

Yep, we keep our button for dog food on the container, TP and baby wipes buttons in the bathroom, ziploc bag one by where we keep those, dishwasher pods under the sink with the pods, and laundry pods in the laundry area. We use them.

So yeah, the first time I run out of TP, and realize it wasn't delived when i pressed the TP button, I'm going all Beavis on Amazon.

See that's the problem with 21st century tech companies. They all have chronic ADHD. They want to sell you a product you use five hours a day for a year and then replace, not a product you use once a month for ten years like a Dash button. Don't trust them to commit to supporting ANYTHING long term. Not Revolv, not Stadia, not Nest, not the Dash button.

Not exactly a big loss here.

I bought one, I got an Amazon credit for the same price as the button when I bought it ... it's not like I desperately need the button.

I honestly never saw the point to the thing, myself. I have a phone and a computer, and I usually try to group my orders to cut down on the number of deliveries I get through them.

If I need something, it's a few buttons away, but at least I have confirmation, and no one is accidentally mashing the button over and over on me.

I've seen many more functional tech things go the way of the dodo bird. This is a device passing I'm not going to mourn in the least.

This always seemed to me like a solution to a problem that didn't exist. If you run out of something, how is pressing a button linked to Amazon going to help? It won't just materialize within seconds; you still had to wait two days before it arrives and by then you could have gone to the store and bought the stupid thing.

Maybe Amazon should have worked on teleportation technology instead.

I never bought them, but I can see where they'd be useful. You're in the laundry room, realize you're running low on detergent, and push the button that's right there. As opposed to completely forgetting to order any half an hour later when you're on your laptop or phone.

Problem is you had to remember to get the button in the first place. I think this was a strategic mistake on amazons part. They should have gone to the big CPG companies that spend billions on marketing and offered them to co-package a button for customers of their goods free of charge. I bet these companies would have killed for the type of customer loyalty a dedicated button would have brought their brands.

They did have promotions like that. We got most of our buttons for free (well amazon credit equal to price of the button = $5). Maybe they could have done a better job about it. Like you buy a pack of detergent pods and it says "want a free dash button and get $2 off your first dash purchase?".